Interview: Microsoft Exec Talks IE7, RSS

BetaNews: Is Microsoft considering replacing ActiveX with another technology due to such security problems?

Gary Schare: In the early days, we admit, we focused more on the power and stability than on the security. We have since upped the investment on the security side of it and feel we've really caught up quite a bit where now users can benefit from ActiveX and not have to worry about the security issues.

At the same time, there are alternative technologies that we're investing in and bringing out to developers, such as the Windows Presentation Framework and the Windows Communication Framework. We'll be pushing those quite aggressively in March at the Mix 06 conference. We expect a lot of developers to utilize those rich client platforms for building Web-based applications, but we certainly don't expect ActiveX to go away in any way, shape or form.

BN: When we last spoke, you cautioned that Firefox was riding on the early adopter wave and would have trouble reaching critical mass. You also cited SP2's 100 million download number dwarfing Firefox's 10 million. Now, Firefox has amassed 150 million downloads and continues to evolve. Has Firefox turned into a formidable competitor to IE and has its success surprised Microsoft?

GS: Certainly Firefox has made its mark out there; there are a number of users who run it. I think the latest stat I've seen across the mainstream is roughly 10 percent, which means 85 or 90% of people are still using Internet Explorer. So our primary focus is how do we deliver better software for our customers so that they don't feel the need to switch.

In general, competition is a good thing, and we respect the work that the Firefox guys have done. It was interesting to read their assessment on their public blogs when we released IE7, and the respect that they showed for us. I think there's been a lot of mutual respect for innovation, and good design ideas. They pointed out a number of things we did in IE7 that they thought would be great to have in Firefox in the future. We think competition is good and it makes us feel good that they're watching what we're doing and offering some positive comments.

BN: The browser landscape has changed a lot in the past two years. Security threats, RSS and AJAX, for example. Where does Microsoft see the market headed and is IE7 a pioneer in this area or a follower? On the outside, it seems like many of the new IE7 features have long been offered in alternate browsers. Is Microsoft playing catch up or are you breaking new ground?

GS: I think you can make a fair case that we're doing a little of both. There were clearly some areas that the early adopters had been using in alternative products for a while. Tabs is probably the primary one. And we fielded a number of questions and even complaints from customers saying "When are you going to give us tabbed browsing in IE." Now we've done that; IE7 has a very, very good tab implementation. There are many users out there who are still using IE6 and have never tried tabbed browsing, and we think when they get exposed to it in IE7 they'll think it's very cool.

There are a number of areas where we have done some innovation. RSS is a key one, both in terms of the user experience we're providing for discovering RSS feeds, reading and subscribing to them in the browser, but even more so in the platform. We've built the first RSS platform that any developer can take advantage of, so when you subscribe to a feed in IE7, that feed data will be available to any application that wants to look at it. This opens up a whole new host of RSS reading applications, as well as applications that in the past would have nothing to do with RSS, but now can take advantage of it because of the platform.

BN: The Windows RSS Platform is seemingly one of the biggest focuses of IE7, and will enable XP to take advantage of the technology. Where do you see RSS heading and why has it become such an important feature in the operating system and Web browser?

GS: If you use an RSS reader, generally you wind up finding a site that has an RSS feed in your Web browser and then you switch over to your RSS reader. And of course, once you're reading the feed there, you're going to link back into your Web browser to actually read a full article. The browser is a natural place for integration between feed discovery and feed reading.

But we don't believe the browser is the only place to consume these feeds, which is why building this RSS platform is so critical. Any developer can come up with all kinds of new ways for users to interact with the feed data. For example, ways to filter, sort and search through the feeds, and bring the data into other applications for things like calendaring and digital images.

BN: IE7 changed a lot from Beta 1 to the Beta 2 Preview. Can we expect to see changes this big before the final release, or are things pretty feature complete at this point?

GS: You've seen the majority of the changes between Beta 1 and the Beta 2 Preview. From here on out the number of changes will be small, and most of them will not be visible to the end user. From our perspective the features are done -- we just may have to change the way some of the features work either for compatibility reasons or due to feedback we get from early testing with customers.

The general feature set you should consider complete, so now is the time for developers to run IE7 against their applications and Web sites and make sure they work well. And if they don't, developers can either report the issue to us, or make some changes in their products. There are certainly some changes in the CSS platform and security that will force some level of change.

BN: Can you give us any idea as to a final release date for IE7?

GS: We think it will be in the same timeframe as Vista. Whether it will be before, on the same day, or just after is unclear at this point. But we expect to have a full public Beta 2 release in the first half of '06 and the final release in the second half of '06. We'll have similar dates for a more public beta of Windows Vista and the final launch.

The version of IE7 in Windows Vista is slightly different; it's a superset of the XP version, but only by a couple of features. One is a feature called Protected Mode, which takes advantage of the new user account controls in Windows Vista to run the Internet Explorer process in a much lower privilege than even a limited user. That offers a great level of protection from future vulnerabilities and malicious attacks. The second feature is parental control -- putting parents in control of the Web sites their kids visit and providing a much safer online experience.

BN: And last but not least: When we last talked, you were using Maxthon as your daily browser. Have you switched to IE7?

GS: Yes, I have. I've been using IE7 since before the first beta last summer and install new builds almost every day so I get to check the progress. We've definitely come a long way. I'll tell you, early on going from Maxthon to IE7 Beta 1 was a difficult switch, because a lot of the features I really liked were not there yet. But now I'm running the IE7 Beta 2 Preview and having a great experience.